The Second Covenant

Dinner was indeed a glorious feast. I was enamored of the honeyed turkey Molly and I had done. Broccoli, corn, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, biscuits, green bean casserole, steak to replace the third turkey, god there was so much food the table was groaning under the weight. The hum of the dinner chatter was pleasant, even Molly was contributing, bantering with Tristan where he sat across from her. Dax was carefully chewing his food, quietly watching Molly every now and again, I think trying not to rip Tristan’s head off.

It was a good night and after Molly and her family left, everybody ended up bunking at my parents house, and for some reason, the sleepover was mostly held in my room. Riley and Tristan managed to talk the twins into playing poker, and once the game was started, the pack joined in, except for Dax, Peyton and I. I was on my bed, reclining in my loose pajama bottoms, watching the boys all stretched out in a circle on the floor of my room like kids. “You know that playing poker with a werewolf is just stupid.” I said, flipping through one of the books I’d ordered off Amazon about Wicca. “Why?” Riley asked and I flipped to another page. “They can smell it when you’re bluffing.”

There were choruses of ‘hey’ and ‘unfair’. Peyton was sitting in my favorite chair, just watching everybody with his brooding eyes. “What are you doing over there? You’re frowning.” Tristan asked and I shrugged. “Reading about some theories and trying to come up with a new idea that doesn’t involve me willing my power away, or draining everybody and turning you into a crusty old man at the age of twenty.” He shuffled the cards in his hands, back and forth, bridging them, thinking. “That would be good. But how will some cheesy book written by a tree hugger help you get an idea?”

I gave him an unenthused look. “Because it was a group of tree huggers that put it in the ground in the first place.” While the guys moved on to another topic, like Riley’s explosive tendencies, I kept reading, going from one book to another, making notes as I lie on my stomach, my feet up in the air, hooked at the ankles, and listened to the hum of voices around me. I’d been surrounded by men most of my life, so it was easy to hear the sound, but not be engaged. So I didn’t notice when Druex stepped into my closet to shift.

He hopped up onto my bed and lie down beside me, his head on his paws, leaned up against my side. I felt that security, that feeling of perfect belonging at the brush of his fur against my cheek. I rolled over and lay my head back on his side, getting a wet kiss on the cheek when he curled around me, his tail across my stomach. I held my book up to my face with one hand and idly stroked his tail with the other. He gave a contented little huff that ruffled my hair and again, I tuned out the sounds of my two families, converging as one.

I was about to put the book down and go to bed when I stumbled across something. Purely by accident. In the book of symbols I was reading, there was one, Greek. “Adelphos.” I said out loud and Druex rested his furry head on my shoulder. “What?” Peyton said and I sat up, “Adelphos. It means Father in Greek.” the epiphany came to me like a thunderclap to the head. I frowned, flipping to another page to see if there was more. “So what does that mean to you?” Dax asked and I rubbed at my temple. “Elizabeth said that he was a magistrate, but a magistrate back in the day was usually also a priest or some form of clergy man. You call your priest Father. Adelphos.”
“Addy.” Tristan said and I looked up, lifted a brow. “How many Law and Order re-runs have we watched where the pedophile wanted his girls to call him Daddy?”

We all kind of sat there and stared at each other for a while. “That…is just…sick.” Declan managed and I nodded, reaching for a pad of paper to write down my thoughts. “Yes it is. But women way back when were married off as young as twelve. Sick, but unfortunately a product of the times. So let’s say he was a witch, and lets just for arguments sake say he wasn’t really a priest, but assumed the title and played at being all pious.” I said, making a bubble graph and notes, trying to organize my thoughts. I waved my hand absently and conjured up the book from my father’s library that held the names of all the people who had lived in Salem during the trials. “Someone go through there and read me the names of all the magistrates and bible thumpers.”

Druex got up and went back to my closet, came back out in his nice slacks, pulling his t-shirt over his head, making his body ripple. I saw, did a double take and felt heat rise to my face when I saw the imprint of my teeth on his chest, and on his neck. Reminders of the wild bouts of sex we kept having. Studiously I looked down at my paper, but I wasn’t really seeing my notes. I was thinking about how lucky I was that I had a mate like Druex. Not every eighteen year old girl had a lover who was devoted to making sure she had not one or two, but no less than five orgasms every time they had sex. Nor did every eighteen year old girl have a lover who was caring and protective, who cherished every moment of their time together.

I was unbelievably blessed. “Did you find something else?” He asked when he sat down next to me. “No.”
“Then why are you smiling?” I leaned my head on his shoulder and wondered if love had a smell. I was so gone. “Just thanking God I wasn’t born in the sixteen hundreds.”
“Amen.” Peyton drawled and read off a list of names for me to write down. There were twenty different magistrates, twelve of which were also part of the church. I made two columns and felt my eyes starting to get gritty.

The clock said it was two in the morning. Way past my bed time. “Enough sweetheart, you’re getting a glazed look of exhaustion.” Druex murmured in my ear, his arm around my shoulders, hugging me to his side. “Yeah. Guys, you all know where the guest rooms are.” I said and got up to stretch, pulling off my sweatshirt and giving my t-shirt a tug to cover my belly. “Night all. Out.” I said and headed for the bathroom to brush my teeth. I heard a minor discussion going on and then the trooping of feet.

When I came out, I had three furry wolves around my bed, and two on the rug in front of the fireplace. Druex was furry, and IN my bed. I sighed but crawled up into bed with Druex. “Night guys.” I said and got little growls and grunts in response. Druex took up his spot beside me, his nose between my breasts. “Night Druex.” He nuzzled my throat and sighed into my hair. I fell asleep surrounded by my pack and couldn’t remember a time when I’d had such a good nights sleep.